Sugar Cookie Bars

Ingredients:
-1 cup butter, softened
– 2 cups granulated sugar
– 4 large eggs
– 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
– 5 cups all-purpose flour
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13″x18″ a cookie sheet (butter or oil)
2. Cream butter and sugar until light & fluffy. This will take 2-3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg. Add vanilla and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl combine flour, salt, baking soda. Add to the wet mixture and mix just until combined. Spread onto the prepared cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 12-15 min, until edges are light golden brown and the center looks pale & puffy and slightly undercooked. Let cool completely before you add frosting. I ran out of time and just used pre-made strawberry frosting. But if you want to do one from scratch try a cream cheese recipe 🙂

TIP:
– After frosting put entire pan in fridge for a few hours before cutting. These are best served cold!

 

Banana Meringue Pie

Ingredients:
– 2 cups vanilla wafers, crushed (8 oz. box)
– 3-4 bananas, cut into slices
– 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
– 1/4 cup flour
– 2 cups milk
– 3 eggs (separate whites and yolks)
– 2 tsp. butter
– 2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a saucepan, whisk 1 1/2 cups sugar, flour and 1 cup milk. Add yolks and whisk until smooth. Add remaining 1 cup milk and butter.
3. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, whisking constantly so the bottom doesn’t burn. Once the mixture boils reduce heat to low and continue whisking for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
4. Spread 1 cup of crushed wafers in 9 inch (deep dish) pie dish. Place 1/2 banana slices over wafers. Pour half of pudding mixture evenly over bananas.
5. Repeat wafer/banana/pudding layer.
6. Meringue: Beat egg whites with an electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and continue to mix on high until peaks are glossy. Spread gently over the top pudding layer. Cover completely. Bake until meringue is golden brown, about 10-15 minutes.
7. Let pie cool for 20 minutes then move to refrigerator for at least 3 hours to chill before serving.

Funfetti is our favorite kind of dessert. We even handmade our wedding cake and it was funfetti 🙂 These cookies are good and easy to make.

Funfetti Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
– 2 3/4 cups flour
– 1 tsp. baking soda
– 1/2 tsp. salt
– 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
– 3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
– 2 cups granulated sugar
– 2 eggs
– 2 tsp. vanilla
– 1/4 cup sprinkles

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix together the butter, oil and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla.
3. Mix in flour, salt and baking soda. Stir in sprinkles.
4. Drop walnut sized balls of dough onto cookie sheet. Cook for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned on the edges.

 

This is a healthier alternative dessert if you are looking for dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free and oil-free. This was a great recipe find! (used this recipe).

Gooey Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients:
– 1/4 cup applesauce
– 1 cup peanut butter
– 1 tsp vanilla
– 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
– pinch of salt
– 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour
– 2/3 cup granulated sugar
– 1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix peanut butter, applesauce and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, stir together dry ingredients (baking soda, salt, flour, sugar, and chocolate chips)
3. Add dry ingredients to wet mix. (the mix will seem dry so add milk if needed)
4. Spread mixture in greased 9×9 baking dish. Bake 10 minutes. The top will look set and cooked but the inside will be very gooey. This is ok. Let set for ay least 1 hour before serving.